ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Bishop Fenwick’s Ellen Fantozzi will be playing in the girls basketball, soccer and lacrosse Agganis Week All-Star games this week.
By KATIE MORRISON
MELROSE — It’s an accomplishment for an athlete to be chosen for an All-Star game in any sport. But to be recognized as one of the best in the area in three sports? That’s something really special.
That honor was bestowed upon Bishop Fenwick’s Ellen Fantozzi, who will be playing in three Agganis All-Star games this week: Monday’s basketball game, Tuesday’s soccer game and Wednesday’s lacrosse game.
“I’m really excited. I was talking to my friend (and teammate in all three sports) Colleen Corcoran, and we were saying ‘oh my god, I can’t wait to play soccer again,’” said Fantozzi. “It’s going to be so much fun to see all my friends and the other seniors. We’re all just going to be looking to have fun together one last time.”
The fall will mark the first time in four years that Corcoran and Fantozzi won’t be taking the field together. The two have been teammates every season since freshman year, both making the varsity soccer team their freshman year, and putting in time at the JV level for a season in both basketball and lacrosse.
Their paths diverge come September, when Corcoran heads off to Le Moyne College, a Division 2 school in the Northeast-10 Conference, where she’ll play basketball.
For Fantozzi, however, her varsity career ended in the Division 2 North lacrosse quarterfinals, when Newburyport took down the Fenwick squad, 12-9, back on June 3.
Fantozzi is off to Boston College, where she’ll try out for the club team in her favorite sport, soccer. The Melrose native said that she knows she’ll miss sports too much.
“It’s really weird (to not be playing),” she said. “Just the routine of it of having practice and games every day, and not being part of a team.”
Soccer has always been the primary sport for Fantozzi. Her sister, Rose, was a two-sport athlete at Fenwick, graduating during Fantozzi’s freshman year. Fantozzi, who plays defense in all three sports, said when she joined the team, she wanted to distance herself from her sister.
“My sister played offense in soccer, so I wouldn’t,” said Ellen. “I didn’t want anyone to compare us.”
She certainly escaped her sister’s shadow.
“(Rose) was always the athlete of the family and it’s weird to think that people now look at me as this athlete,” Fantozzi said.
Fantozzi is glad to have another chance to play soccer with her teammates Corcoran and Merry Harrington. The three have become close friends over the years, having spent so much time together through years of practices and games.
Their senior season ended in heartbreak back in the fall. North Reading snuck by the Crusaders, 2-1, in the Division 3 North final.
“That soccer game, that was a tough one,” said Fantozzi. “We still feel it. Our coach (Karen Guillemette) still stays up at night thinking about that one. I wish we got that soccer game back, but it will be nice to end on a positive note.”
Corcoran and Fantozzi got a chance to get revenge on North Reading in the winter. The Crusaders blew past the Hornets in the D3 North final en route to a state title.
“Ellen was probably the most underrated aspect of our success over the last two years,” said Fenwick basketball coach Adam DeBaggis. “She is not blessed with natural gifts as a shooter or ball-handler, but she came into her junior year and made the decision that she was going to make an impact on our team no matter what. It was all her.
“She’s one of the best people I’ve ever had the chance to coach. Bishop Fenwick was successful this year because of people like Ellen’s heart.”
While Fantozzi acknowledges that her final high school games will be bittersweet, she’s looking forward to playing with not just her Fenwick teammates, but athletes from around the area.
“I look up and down the rosters, and you feel like you know everybody,” she said. “It’s crazy that it’s our turn, and it’s all over.”
There’s just one thing she’s concerned about.
“It’ll be a little awkward at first, because everyone on my teams will tell you I never stop talking, even on the field, I’m talking constantly,” Fantozzi said with a smile. “I’ll have to watch myself to make sure I’m not talking too much. But I’m excited. It will be a lot of fun.”
